


now that we're dead, my dear (we can live forever)

by carrieevew



Series: the sun rises and the day begins [2]
Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Post-Season/Series 04, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-21
Updated: 2018-04-21
Packaged: 2019-04-25 15:54:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14381979
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carrieevew/pseuds/carrieevew
Summary: "Clarke stood by his side, hoping that whatever animal made that noise had fallen dead and wouldn’t lunge at them. She reached for the branches on the other side and together, they yanked them away.Only there was no animal laying there, on the ground. It was a child."or: Bellamy and Clarke find Madi together - a sequel to(my dear) the end comes near.





	now that we're dead, my dear (we can live forever)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toomuchtroubletbh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toomuchtroubletbh/gifts).



> ask and you shall receive! i didn't originally plan to follow the original story with anything but all it took was one well-times request and here we are! and i'm actually glad i did it cause it was fun to write. hopefully, you'll enjoy reading it just as much.
> 
> title from **[Now That We're Dead](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QlF4rhAbwyc)** by Metallica.

The first three months were difficult.

Every day, they would wake up, check the sensors to see that the radiation outside was still unsurvivable and then fail to make contact with either the bunker or the Ark. And every day they would convince each other that the static they were getting didn't mean anything. The death wave knocked out their radio long before Raven launched the rocket and then the cloud that settled over the planet successfully blocked any signal they tried to send out. Just because they couldn’t contact their loved ones, didn’t mean that they weren’t okay.

Not that it helped very much. They still looked at each other in silence for the whole five minutes that they spent listening to the static every day.

It was very hard to stay positive and to hope for the best when they were both stuck in a bunker with its food supplies dwindling quickly, the air filter barely capable of providing enough oxygen to keep them alive and all the computers reminding them that the world outside would probably kill them the moment they decided to step out.

So instead, they talked. They spent hours and days finally talking about all the irrelevant shit that they never had time for before.

They raided the computer servers for movies, and tv shows, and old cat videos that remained long after the world that produced then had ended.

They talked about their nightmares, too. About the people whose faced were always there, lurking in the shadows every time they closed their eyes. They wiped each other’s tears away as they remembered their loved ones who were gone forever and then they held each other close, as they laid in their bed, their naked bodies sated and blissfully tired.

If felt unbelievably, wonderfully good to have the chance to her to know one another without having death and destruction constantly hanging over their heads. They may have been stuck in that bunker, but for the first time since they were dropped on this earth, they were safe. In a way.

And yet, day after day, it was also starting to feel a little hopeless.

...

And then, on day 89, it didn’t anymore.

...

As always, Bellamy was the first to wake up. He kept saying that it were his guard training and then janitorial shifts that installed this routine in him but Clarke knew that he just didn’t sleep very well at night and used 6 am as a perfect excuse to start the day.

He was already down in the pantry, taking inventory of their meagre food supplies but the time Clarke had rolled out of bed and went over to the computer to check the sensors.

She was still rubbing her eyes when she sat down in front of the screen, so it took her a moment to notice it, but when she finally did, her fingers froze one the keyboard.

Because after almost three months of all the readings sitting well over the limit, at the very end of the scale—they finally weren’t anymore. Granted, it was still too soon to actually go outside but it finally seemed like things were moving into the right direction.

Clarke was so entranced by the data from all the sensors that she didn’t even notice that Bellamy came up behind her.  She jumped up slightly when he placed his hand on her shoulder, which made him frown.

“What’s wrong,” he asked, sounding alarmed.

“It’s—“ Clarke begun and turned to Bellamy, a big grin stretching her face until her cheeks hurt. “Look!” She pointed to the screen and scrolled through the data.

She watched as Bellamy’s eyes grew bigger as they roved over the screen. He grabbed her had halfway through and then she turned to look at her after he got to the end, astonishment all over his face.

“We will get out of here,” he said quietly, like he was hoping not to jinx it.

Clarke nodded and then tugged him closer, surging up to kiss him soundly. They were both grinning when she pulled away.

“We will get out of here,” she confirmed.

…

It took them a while to do it, still. But when all the sensors have finally settled into the green area that meant the radiation levels have finally dropped enough that they might survive outside, they were more than ready to get the hell out of the lighthouse.

They stood at the door, dressed in their anti-radiations suits, with their backpacks stuffed with supplies. Bellamy put his hand on the lever, ready to open the door. And yet, he wavered.

Clarke took a deep breath and put her hand on top of his. Bellamy jerked his head to glance at her, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed.

“Together,” she said with a weak smile. Bellamy smiled back at her, nodded and they pulled the lever.

The gaskets hissed when the seals gave way and the pulled the heavy doors open. 

The first rays of actual sunshine after weeks of living with artificial lightning blinded them just as they did when they first landed a year ago.

“Here’s hoping the air isn’t toxic, huh?” Bellamy joked with a uncertain half-smile, also remembering their first day on earth.

He grabbed Clarke’s hand off the lever and intertwined their fingers, squeezing hard.

And then, they left.

…

The world around them looked unbelievable.

The trees were burned into caricaturous stumps, the ground was scorched and there was no more water left in the lake surrounding Becca’s island.

They didn’t dare take their helmets off as walked to the lab. The mansion that survived the first Armageddon—probably thanks to ALIE redirecting some of the missiles, didn’t stand a chance against the second one, Praimfaya wreaking havoc on the house and the grounds surrounding it.

The small harbour were Emori’s boat used to be docked was wrecked as well, the boat itself nowhere to be seen. And in any case, with the water evaporated from the lake, there was only a hole in the ground left. There was nothing left for them to do but to cross it on foot.

It took them hours to get to the other bank but in an unexpected stroke of luck, the rover was still there, hidden away in a cave near the pier. It had just enough power in it left that they managed to take it outside and charge it.

“How is this more shocking than seeing the ground for the first time ever?” Clarke wondered incredulously and Bellamy chuckled in agreement. They removed their helmets and suits, opened the boot of the rover and sat down on the lowered tailgate, watching their surroundings.

Bellamy pulled out a couple of protein bars and they chewed on them, waiting for the rover to charge. Clarke rested her head on Bellamy’s shoulder and closed her eye. She felt his arm pulling her closer into his side and before she knew it, she dozed off.

…

Clarke roused with a start and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. The journey across the late, with heavy packs and uncomfortable suits was exhausting but the middle of a field was not a good place to stay and make camp, they needed to move.

“How long was I out,” she asked with a yawn and Bellamy shrugged lightly.

“Half an hour, maybe? I was hoping to get some sleep, too, but you started snoring,” he teased her with a smirk. Clarke elbowed him in the ribs which made him let out an exaggerated yelp. Bellamy tightened his arm around her shoulders, hugged her closer to his side and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“We really need to get going,” Clarke said, sneaking her arms around Bellamy’s middle and snuggling into his warmth, not moving despite her own words. “We should try and cover as much ground as possible before night time.”

Bellamy hummed his agreement and moved away from her with a heavy sigh.

They went east and drove for several hours when Clarke, with her head resting against the passenger window, noticed the dark clouds gathering on the horizon. She looked at Bellamy, and judging by his furrowed brow, he noticed the change in the weather as well.

“We need to find some shelter,” he said decidedly.

They drove closer to the mountain side, hoping to find some cave or cavern capable of housing them both and the rover.

It was almost dark before they finally drove underneath a ledge wide enough that could hide them from the elements. They climbed into the back of rover and started to unpack the sleeping bags when the first lightning struck, followed quickly by a loud thunder and then the noise of a sudden rainfall.

Clarke hesitated for a moment but then opened the back door and jumped out of the rover. She heard Bellamy call out after her in surprise but she waved him off. She took a few steps and she felt the wind tugging at the flaps of her jacket. A couple of steps more and she was right under the end of the ledge. Slowly, she outstretched her arm, palm up and tried to catch a drop.

A few of them fell on her hand in rapid succession and Clarke jerked her hand back, shocked by the feeling. The rain was cold but it didn’t burn.

She turned around and practically skipped towards the rover, smile tugging at her lips. She grinned at Bellamy when she climbed back inside but he wasn’t quite as happy.

“What the hell, Clarke?!” he exclaimed, annoyed, but Clarke only shoved her hand towards him, her palm still slightly wet.

“Look at that, Bell,” she said with a grin, “the rain’s not toxic anymore!”

She laughed when Bellamy grabbed her hand to examine it closer. He looked up at her, eyes wide and he started laughing too. Clarke nearly threw herself onto him, her arm going around his shoulders, and pressed a kiss to his mouth. He opened up for her and she was ready to deepen the kiss when the wind changed direction and blew cold air inside the rover. Bellamy scrambled to shut the back door. He slumped against it and let out a deep breath.

They settled in for the night, wrapped around each other and the sleeping bags. The rain stopped almost as soon as it started, the storm moving away from them but the wind didn’t give up. Without the trees, it was blowing freely and loudly, turning the world outside into a howling wilderness.

…

They drove for three more days across the desolate desert left behind the Praimfaya before the scenery finally changed.

Hundreds of miles travelled until they reach an edge of a vast, green, living valley.

They parked the rover close on the soft, lush grass the seemed to have magically kept on growing, alongside all the trees and flowers, like nothing ever happened.

The first touch of the tall wildflowers felt unbelievable. Clarke picked on of the bright red poppies, the petals delicate to the touch. She handed it to Bellamy. He took it from her wordlessly, his face amazed, eyed wide. He snapped off the long stem and put the flower behind Clarke’s ear. Bellamy placed a soft kiss on her cheek and Clarke could feel her face warming up with a slight blush. She smiled at him and grabbed Bellamy’s hand, pulling him to follow her further into the valley.

They crossed the field of tall grass and reached a treeline—smaller saplings at first but soon, tall with broad crowns, providing shade from the sun. Within a couple of hours, they reached a forest quite like the one the dropship first landed in, only somehow even more amazing and unbelievable.

They stopped at some point, after hours and hours of just wandering around this beautiful Eden that was miraculously saved from the conflagration, when the sun was setting. Bellamy pulled their sleeping bags and a tarp from his backpack and started setting up a camp while Clarke took stock of their food supply. She set up a handful of traps in case there were some small animals still around.

They went to sleep underneath a canopy of tree branches and the tarp set up to shield them from the sides.

It felt peaceful in a way it never actually had before.

With the remains of the humankind locked away in a bunker hundreds of miles away, they were the only ones around.

No Grounders sneaking around, no wolves or boars brave enough to come after them.

Only Bellamy and Clarke, sleeping soundly, lulled by the rustling of the leaves above them.

….

Clarke woke up with a start and nearly panicked when she felt a hand covering her face. She jerked her head and tried to get away quickly but then her vision cleared and she that it was Bellamy, crouched right next to her, motioning to stay silent. She nodded at him and sat up as quietly as she could, her face furrowed in confusion.

Bellamy pointed to the bushes a few feet away from them. Clarke focused on them and soon, she heard the rustling, too. She stiffened and felt Bellamy move by her side. He pulled a gun from the backpack and cocked it slowly, hoping to keep it quiet.

Better safe than sorry, he said when he packed the gun back in the lighthouse bunker and Clarke sure as hell was glad that he brought it with him. She grabbed a knife from her pocket and grasped it tightly.

The rustling kept moving towards them until it stopped abruptly and they heard something fall to the ground with a thump. The looked at each other and when Clarke nodded lightly, they moved closer to the bushes, Bellamy first with his gun trained firmly on the target.

He stopped by the bush, and reached for the branches, ready to move the out of the way. Clarke stood by his side, hoping that whatever animal made that noise had fallen dead and wouldn’t lunge at them. She reached for the branches on the other side and together, they yanked them away.

Only there was no animal laying there, on the ground. It was a child.

…

Clarke dropped her knife and fell to her knees by the kid’s side. She started moving their long and dishevelled hair, trying to see for any life signs. She heard Bellamy swear profusely as he ran to his backpack for the first aid kit they brought with them.

Clarke relaxed a bit when she realised the kid was breathing and moving around a bit. She gathered the hair away from their face and there she was—a girl no older than seven, her face pale and covered in bruises and scrapes, clearly dehydrated and malnourished.

She propped the girl on her thigh and grabbed the bottle of water that Bellamy handed her.

“Hey, sweetheart,” Clarke coaxed gently, hoping the girl would open her eyes. “Do you want some water?”

That finally worked, and the girl blinked rapidly, her lips parting, hand reaching for the drink. Clarke moved the bottle closer to the girls mouth and helped her take a few sips.

The girl coughed, her eyed snapping open. She sat up, her moves tired and slow, and looked and Clarke and then Bellamy from behind the curtain of her dark hair.

“What’s your name?” Clarke asked gently and then tried again in Trigedasleng when there was answer. The girl stayed quiet but Clarke had no doubt the girl understood her both times.

“Okay, then,” Clarke resigned with a sigh. “My name is Clarke, this is Bellamy,” she motioned to him, and Bellamy crouched right next to her, trying for his most reassuring smile. He had one of the protein bars with him and he offered it to the girl.

“You should eat something,” Bellamy said quietly, not wanting to scare the girl away. He unwrapped the bar and the girl reached for it hesitantly.

The both watched the kid practically swallow the protein bar whole and Clarke smiled at her when she was done. The girl scrubbed at her face with the sleeve of her jacked and yawned loudly, blinking as she tried to keep her eyes open.

Clarke offered her hand to the girl.

“Come on, we all need to get some sleep, huh?” Clarke proposed in a hopeful tone and the girl hesitated but for a moment before she took Clarke’s hand. Clarke took the girl in her arms and carried her to their makeshift bed. She was already asleep by the time Clarke sat down with her, laid the girl down and tucked her into the sleeping bag.

She went back to where Bellamy was still standing, frozen in place. He raised his eyebrows at her when she stood face to face with him but Clarke had no idea what to say to him. No one and no thing was supposed to survive Praimfaya and yet here they were—in a hidden corner of a paradise with a _child_.

Clarke rested her forehead on Bellamy’s chest and she felt  his arms coming up around her.

“Just when you think this Earth can’t possibly surprise us anymore, huh?” Bellamy joked and Clarke only let out a huff, her shoulders shaking, too tired to actually laugh. She lifted her head to look at him and pressed her chin to his sternum, her own eyes losing the battle against exhaustion. “Come on, Princess, let’s to sleep. Before all of her friends and extended family show up.”

…

They took turns sleeping. They wanted to keep an eye on the girl, see if she was alright. And in all seriousness, they were somewhat worried that she might not be alone after all.

When the girl woke up in the morning, they already had a small breakfast and a plan ready. Clarke wanted to check her for injuries and they hoped she’d be more open now that she was well-rested and fed. The girl panicked and jumped away from her, when Clarke offered to help her clean up.

“ _Momma said to never show blood_ ,” the girl said quickly in Trigedasleng. Clarke stared at her for a moment in confusion before it finally clicked.

She waved Bellamy over and grabbed his arm, unwrapping the bandage she put there a few days ago when he cut himself back in the lighthouse bunker. Bellamy stiffened for a moment, unsure what was she doing, but he went with it. The wound was healing nicely but there it was—the scab and the dressing were undeniably black from his blood.

“Look!” Clarke shown her the bandage and Bellamy seemed to have finally figure out her point because he moved his arm around and presented the wound to the girl. “We’re _natblida_ , just like you.” Clarke explained hopefully. The girl looked apprehensive at first but finally, curiosity won over and she came closer, her eyes widening comically when she took in Bellamy’s wound.

“You, too?” she asked Clarke, voice brimmed with wonder and residual disbelief. Clarke nodded a confirmation and the girl sat down on a log next to her.

“I thought I was the only one left,” the girl said quietly, looking at the ground. “Momma said everyone else went to Polis and I needed to stay inside so no one will find me.”  She was talking in a hushed tone, like she was still afraid someone might overhear her and Clarke had a horrible flashback to the band of children she watched preparing for the conclave, some of them not much older that this girl—the same children that Ontari murdered without a blink of an eye. She swallowed around the lump in her throat.

“Don’t worry, sweetheart,” she said, reaching for the girl’s hand. She squeezed it lightly and looked her straight in the eye. “There is no more Polis. No one will ever try to take you anywhere you won’t want to go, okay? I promise.”

The girl blinked slowly before she nodded.

“So,” Clarke prompted. “What’s your name?”

“Madi,” she said finally. Clarke smiled at her and squeezed her fingers gently once more.

…

“So,” Bellamy started with a sigh later in the evening, when Madi had gone to sleep. She relaxed around them a little more during the day, told them a little bit more about the months she spent in an old storm shelter, just like her parents taught her. She only left when she ran out of food almost a week ago and she was trying to find some other people, ideally her parents.

It was heart-breaking to tell her that her family was almost definitely dead, if they weren’t nightbloods or didn’t end up in the bunker but Madi took in stride.

“So,” Clarke answered him with a smirk. They were sitting side by side next to a slow fire that was dying down and neither of them bothered to add more wood to it.

“I guess there’s three of us now,” he said. Clarke wrapped her hands around his biceps and propped her chin on his shoulder. She grinned at him and Bellamy answered with a smile.

“Yeah,” she agreed. “We might as well stay here and build a home here, huh?”

Bellamy brought his hand to cup her face. He brushed his thumb over her cheek and placed a soft kiss on her lips.

“Yeah, we better.”

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you guys for reading! kudos and comments would bring me eternal sunshine and so many karma points for you.  
> catch me on tumblr @[carrieeve](http://carrieeve.tumblr.com), we can all scream and cry about he upcoming season.


End file.
